Time Line
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: Time-Lines. They're all the rage in the Wizarding World right now. Every journal, newspaper, and magazine is advertising the latest gadgets. From what they can gather, Time-Lines are a sort of cross between a Time-Turner and Pensieve. Shiny, gold, new, and fits in your pocket, too! What's not to like about them?


8 January 2015. Word Count: 1,077

prompts used: snake, peacock, justice, critique, bomb

**Time Line**

[-]

"What's that in your pocket?" Oliver stares at Katie suspiciously when she comes home late after work one night.

She's unbuttoning her peacock blue pea coat in preparation to hang it up on the coat rack they have by the front door to their flat and says cheekily, "Haven't got anything in my pocket."

"Not your coat pocket," Oliver says exasperatedly. "There, in your back pocket."

"Checking out my bum again, are you?" Katie smirks. She breezes past him into the main room, goosing him as she goes.

"Hey!" is the indignant reply of her boyfriend, and just like Katie had counted on, Oliver forgets about the mysterious thing in her pocket in lieu of catching her up on his day and helping her prepare dinner.

x

It's not until the two go shopping in Diagon Alley for Angelina and George's wedding gift when Oliver remembers about the curious trinket Katie had been keeping from him.

"What did you have in your pocket – "

"Oliver. We've been over this."

"What? No, we haven't. You still won't tell me what it was you brought home that night."

Katie rolls her eyes. "Yes, I did. Try listening to me when I talk to you instead of paying attention to the sports match du jour on the radio!"

He blushes. "I, er, I didn't know that it bothered you so much." Oliver hesitates but then says, "I'll stop listening to it during dinner, if you'd like."

She loops her arm around his and kisses his cheek. "You don't have to go to the extremes, dear. I just want you to pay attention to me sometimes." She pulls him into Sur la Table, a kitchen/home shop. "Come on. I think I saw in their catalogue a set of matching crystal candleholders that they would absolutely love."

x

They ended up buying those candleholders. Of course, Katie wanted to buy candles to go along with them. So now, Oliver is standing uncomfortably in the girly perfume shop, his nose tickling from the barrage of contrasting smells.

"What's this?" he asks as he picks up a curious shaped thing.

Katie looks up from where she is perusing the wall of candles. She bites her lip to keep from giggling. Oliver looks so out of place in her favourite scent shop. "A bath bomb."

"Right," Oliver says, clearly still not knowing what the thing is or its purpose. "So it times how long your bath should be? And if you're not out on time, then what happens? Justice is served?"

"Erm, not exactly. A bath bomb releases a scent into your bathwater. That's all." Katie guides Oliver out from the shop. "You were right. It's hard to shop for someone else's tastes. Let's forget about the candles and just give them only the candleholders."

"Of course I was right," Oliver jokes. "I always am."

Katie shakes her head indulgently, and together they head over to the Three Broomsticks for a cuppa before they go home.

x

Time-Lines. They're all the rage in the Wizarding World right now. Every journal, newspaper, and magazine is advertising the latest gadgets. From what they can gather, Time-Lines are a sort of cross between a Time-Turner and Pensieve. Shiny, gold, new, and fits in your pocket, too! What's not to like about them?

The pub is filled with witches and wizards who have got the time travel device strapped onto their wristwatch hand. A few of the gold faces wink at Katie and Oliver in the sunlight, camera flashes that are capturing their presence in their wearer's time stream. Candid snapshots that they'll never remember being in but the viewer will ooh and ahh and critique the fashion of their cloaks some thirty odd years in the future. How kind.

"One of the boys got one, just the other day," Oliver tells her over a pint of butterbeer. "It was a company gift from Puddlemere. Part of the lad's promotional contract. But Katie, do you know how much money the Time-Lines are worth? Dear Merlin, what an expensive fad!"

"Meant to be given only on special occasions then, I suppose," is her reply.

x

"You clever, clever little minx," Oliver smirks. "Or should I say snake, the way you were so cunning about it back then?"

"What are you ever talking about?" Katie laughs and runs around the hotel room as Oliver chases her.

"You got the pocket watch version, didn't you?"

"The pocket watch version of _what_?" Years of running laps on the Quidditch pitch have made Katie fast but Oliver is so much faster. She shrieks breathlessly but then concedes defeat when he tackles her onto the bed.

"The Time-Line," he says as he begins to pepper her face and neck with little butterfly kisses. "The one that you transfigured to become my wedding ring."

"Oh," she says, and suddenly she's breathless for a whole new reason. Her white gown rustles as she shifts to make herself comfortable when she props herself up on her elbows. "How did you find out so fast?"

"Twisting the ring," he admits. "I was all sorts of anxious for our wedding reception to be over with – I'm sure you know the reasons why – and so I started fiddling with the ring. Imagine my surprise when it turned into a pocket watch! And I knew that only Time-Lines looked like the clock in the Weasley's home. You know, the one that doesn't tell time but location? Except Time-Line watch faces show past events and memories in the wearer's time stream."

"What did you see?"

"All your preparations about proposing to me."

Katie smirks and pulls on Oliver's tie to bring him down closer to her on the bed. "So _that's_ what took you so long in the bathroom. There were a lot of memories in that Time-Line, if I remember correctly."

"Ah... mhmm. Yeah."

"People were starting to worry, Mr. Wood. There was speculation that you were making a getaway without your new bride."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Silly buggers. They didn't know we had special plans for tonight."

"Oh, did we?"

Oliver grins. "Jump on the bed with me, Mrs. Oliver Wood?"

"I bet I'll touch the ceiling before you," she taunts as she stands up on the bed.

He joins her, with a wide silly smile still on his face. "Marry me," he says.

"Your proposal is a wee bit late because in case you hadn't noticed, I already did," Katie laughs.

[-]


End file.
